Geography Population & Ethnic Groups Public Holidays Money/Currency Exchange General Tips China History

Geography

The People's Republic of China (PRC), the third largest country in the world, which is located in East Asia, has a land area of approximately 9.6 million sq km, next only to Russia and Canada. China shares borders with fifteen contiguous countries: Korea to the east, the People's Republic of Mongolia to the north, Russia to the northeast, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan and Tajikistan to the northwest, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan to the west and southwest, and Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar to the south; and also shares borders with other six countries across the sea: the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Population & Ethnic Groups

China tops other countries in terms of population, with a population of 1.3 billion people according to the latest survey. The majority group is Han, while there are other 55 ethnic groups in China. Guangxi Province has the largest population of ethnic groups, and Yunnan Province is prior in the varieties of the ethnic groups.

Public Holidays

There are many traditional festivals in China, such as Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and Mid-Autumn Day, etc. Besides those traditional holidays, many Chinese people, especially the young, now also celebrate western festivals, such as Christmas and Halloween.

Holiday	Days Off
New Year	2 days
Spring Festival	3 days
Labour Day (May 1)	5 days
National Day (Oct 1)	5 days

Money & Currency Exchange

The state bank, the People's Bank of China, issues the Chinese currency, known as Renminbi (RMB). Known to people worldwide as Renminbi (RMB), many people in China also use "yuan" or "kuai" to denote RMB. The standard unit of the Renminbi is "yuan/kuai", with "jiao/mao" and "fen" as the subsidiary units.

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China History

China, one of the world's most ancient civilizations, has a history of approximately 5,000 years. The following excerpt outlines the main events that led to the forming of the People's Republic of China:

"...The success of the Qing dynasty in maintaining the old order proved a liability when the empire was confronted with growing challenges from seafaring Western powers. The centuries of peace and self-satisfaction dating back to Ming times had encouraged little change in the attitudes of the ruling elite.

By the nineteenth century, China was experiencing growing internal pressures of economic origin. By the start of the century, there were over 300 million Chinese, but there was no industry or trade of sufficient scope to absorb the surplus labor. Moreover, the scarcity of land led to widespread rural discontent and a breakdown in law and order. The weakening through corruption of the bureaucratic and military systems and mounting urban pauperism also contributed to these disturbances.

The republic that Sun Yat-sen (and his associates envisioned evolved slowly. On May 4, 1919, there were massive student demonstrations against the Beijing government and Japan. The political fervor, student activism, and iconoclastic and reformist intellectual currents set in motion by the patriotic student protest developed into a national awakening known as the May Fourth Movement The intellectual milieu in which the May Fourth Movement developed was known as the New Culture Movement and occupied the period from 1917 to 1923. The student demonstrations of May 4, 1919 were the high point of the New Culture Movement, and the terms are often used synonymously. Students returned from abroad advocating social and political theories ranging from complete Westernization of China to the socialism that one day would be adopted by China's communist rulers.

The May Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause of republican revolution. In 1917 Sun Yat-sen had become commander-in-chief of a rival military government in Guangzhou in collaboration with southern warlords. In October 1919 Sun reestablished the Guomindang to counter the government in Beijing.

Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in Beijing in March 1925, but the Nationalist movement he had helped to initiate was gaining momentum. Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's lieutenants from Tongmeng Hui days became Sun's successor as head of the Guomindang and the unifier of all China under the right-wing nationalist government. During the summer of 1925, Chiang, as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, set out on the long-delayed Northern Expedition against the northern warlords. Within nine months, half of China had been conquered.

There were forces at work during this period of progress that would eventually undermine the Chiang Kai-shek government. The first was the gradual rise of the Communists. Mao Zedong who had become a Marxist at the time of the emergence of the May Fourth Movement had boundless faith in the revolutionary potential of the peasantry. In collaboration with military commander Zhu De (1886-1976), Mao turned the local peasants into a politicized guerrilla force. By the winter of 1927-28, the combined "peasants' and workers'" army had some 10,000 troops.

On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally established, with its national capital at Beijing. "The Chinese people have stood up!" declared Mao as he announced the creation of a "people's democratic dictatorship." The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie, and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led by the CCP, as the vanguard of the working class. At that time the CCP claimed a membership of 4.5 million, of which members of peasant origin accounted for nearly 90 percent. The party was under Mao's chairmanship, and the government was headed by Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) as premier of the State Administrative Council (the predecessor of the State Council)..."